Ministry Strategy & Values
Community 4:12 seeks to establish a community service pipeline to initiate, promote and support community development efforts in targeted under-resourced communities. Starting with charitable ministries and progressing to empowerment and development ministries, Community 4:12 looks to meet current community needs while working toward the elimination of underlying, systemic causes of poverty and stifled development. The community service pipeline is also structured as a ladder to encourage people to find ways to move from one-time or isolated serving into more relationally-based and empowering methods of serving alongside the poor. It is important to ensure that community service is not based on one-way engagement, which is why Community 4:12 additionally identifies and leverages the strengths of target communities. This process creates reciprocal relationships, which can subsequently form the foundation of beginning to break down societal barriers and inequalities across races, cultures, and economic levels.
|
Level 1: |
Level 2: |
Level 3: |
| most common form of response | less common form of response | very uncommon form of response |
| meet basic needs through "hand-outs" |
equip people in need to meet their own needs by providing a "hand-up" | advocacy and community and economic development |
| can be done from a distance | requires building a relationship | requires addressing societal systems/structures and injustices |
| immediate results short-lived no significant long-term impact |
results take longer to achieve longer lasting impact limited to individuals |
incremental results that effect significant long-term change for an entire community |
| examples: food and clothing drives; serving at soup kitchens; home makeovers; providing free Christmas gifts; disaster relief; global feeding ministries | examples: tutoring; job, parenting, and life skill training; operating food co-ops, Christmas Gift Mart; clothing resale shop, child sponsorship; equipping a community with clean drinking water or health care | examples: micro-finance loans for start-up businesses; Advocacy for equality in schools (Millennium Development Goals abroad & school finance reform at home); creating living-wage jobs; home ownership & higher education initiatives |
The difference between Charity & Justice:
What will be the instrument of the church in effecting change? Not simply charity but also justice. Charity is episodic, justice is ongoing. One brings consolation, the other correction. One aims at symptoms, the other at causes. One changes individuals, the other [changes the world]. Harvie Conn, Westminster Theological Seminary
Values/Guiding Principles:
- Birthed in and Blanketed in Prayer: If God is not included in the development and execution of a project or initiative, we do not believe it is set up for success. We require that all initiatives have as part of the leadership team a strong Christ-follower who is part of a Christian faith community and is committed to personal spiritual development. We do support non-Christians being part of a project's leadership team, but will not support an exclusively non-Christian project team. This does not mean there needs to be an overtly evangelistic component to an initiative or project.
- Partnership: We never work in isolation. The foundation of everything we do is based on partnering with schools, churches, other non-profits, businesses, and/or government.
- Reciprocity: We aim to not provide services "to" or "for", but "with" the community, so that everyone is considered and expected to have something to offer and contribute.
- Development of Indigenous Leadership: A primary goal of every program and initiative should be to train and develop local youth and adults as workers and leaders.
- Geographically Focused: Programs and services are targeted to the focus area/neighborhoods.
- Scalable, Reproducible, and Measurable: Every initiative must begin small or as a pilot program with the ability to grow in size and scope. Development and implementation of any initiative must be documented for possible replication in other neighborhoods or communities. And every initiative must begin with a definition of success and how it will be measured.
Recommended Reading List:
Compassion, Justice, and the Christian Life: Rethinking Ministry to the Poor Robert Lupton
When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourself Corbett/Fikkert